Being Enlightened

 DEVOTION

THE LETTER TO THE EPHESIANS

BEING ENLIGHTENED

Eph 1:15-23

15 For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, 16 I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. 17 I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. 18 I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, 19 and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, 20 which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, 21 far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. 22 And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, 23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.

NIV

In addition to knowing him better, because we have been given the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, we also should pray for others that the eyes of their heart may be enlightened in order that they may know the hope which he has called them to, which are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints and his incomparably great power for those who believe. On the other hand, we would think that others are praying that we would have the eyes of our hearts enlightened. We do wonder if it is possible that without someone praying for us, and vice versa, we are praying for them, that we all might have the eyes of our hearts enlightened because we have the indwelling of the Spirit, who leads us into all truth. We would think that it is the Spirit who does the enlightening of our hearts, but it also looks like we have to have the eyes of our hearts open, to that enlightenment. We wonder if it is possible as believers, we can close the eyes of our hearts, and thus we would not be enlightened and not know the hope that we have been called to. The Spirit is within us, but we must allow Him full access and authority in our lives for Him to open the eyes of our hearts. If we keep wanting the self within us to have any authority, then the eyes of our hearts will never be enlightened. Why would we not what the riches of his glorious inheritance? Why would we not want his incomparably great power? It is his power that he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms. If the eyes of our heart are enlightened then we would know this same incomparably great power as he exerts in us as he raises us from the dead. In addition, Jesus said in the revelation given to John that those who overcome would have the right to sit on his throne with him, just as he overcame and sat down with the Father on His throne.  Of course, we want to know the power of God working in us and raising us from the dead. Therefore, we always want the Spirit to continue enlightening our hearts with all the truth of God. Let us put to death that self within us and bury it. That is exactly what we were supposed to do that day we were baptized. If we try to resurrect that self and exert its power in us, then we are going nowhere fast. It is only the incomparably great power of God exerted on us that will take us somewhere incredibly wonderful. Let us never shut the eyes of our hearts to the enlightenment of the Spirit. 

To Know Him Better

 DEVOTION

THE LETTER TO THE EPHESIANS

TO KNOW HIM BETTER

Eph 1:15-23

15 For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, 16 I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. 17 I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. 18 I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, 19 and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, 20 which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, 21 far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. 22 And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, 23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.

NIV

How much do we know God? Do we know Him enough or are we still in need to know him better? Then we wonder if we are always remembering others in our prayers and asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give them the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so they may know him better. Then we wonder if any is remembering us in prayer asking the glorious Father to give us the Spirit of wisdom and understanding that we might know Him better. However, we think that we all have this Spirit dwelling within us and therefore should we not already have the Spirit of wisdom and understanding? He is the same Spirit that leads us into all truth and so if we are listening to the truth, which would be the wisdom of God, and He gives us understanding, so then we already have what is needed to know God better. Plus, we have something those in Ephesus did not, no matter how much wisdom and revelation they received. We have the complete, comprehensive word of God that is chuck full of the wisdom of God and with the complete revelation of Jesus Christ so that we can know Him not just better, but know Him fully. Although, it is doubtful that we have comes to the point of fully knowing Him, and so we are always in need of studying His word while listening to the Spirit who opens our hearts and mind to all the truth within God’s word. Therefore, we are constantly in need of knowing Him better, but we do have all the resources at our fingertips and the Spirit within in order to know Him better and better each day. That should be our main focus in life, to know Him better. We do have to live our daily lives on earth, with all the complexities that entail, and so we cannot spend all day, every day in full-out study of His word. However, as we do, we can start each day with a little study, finding some truth, with the guidance of the spirit, so that we can ponder on whatever amount of truth has been revealed to us. In this way at least, we can learn something to help us know Him better. 

Love For All the Saints

 DEVOTION

THE LETTER TO THE EPHESIANS

LOVE FOR ALL THE SAINTS

Eph 1:15-23

15 For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, 16 I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. 17 I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. 18 I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, 19 and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, 20 which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, 21 far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. 22 And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, 23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.

NIV

We have another rather long thought that is crammed full of theological points that we are going to need to take one at a time. First, it is good to hear about the faith of others. Someone had informed Paul of the faith of those people in Ephesus, but it does give us this clue as to how we should be glad about the faith that other believers have and how much they love all the saints. Here is where we might run into a snag. We do wonder when we are in the presents of some believers whether or not they actually have love in their hearts for all the saints, which would include us. Then we have to face the issue of whether we actually can say that we have love in our hearts for all the saints. Even within the local church, we find love may find some that we do not love as much as we should and that there are some who most likely do not love us as much as they should. How do we deal with this, if we are supposed to love the Lord with all our heart, soul, mind, and body and love our neighbor as ourselves? We do wonder if Paul was talking about their love for all the saints in the hope that his saying would encourage them or spur them to love. We also wonder how it is possible to love all the saints, especially when we do not know all saints. Then we wonder what love for all the saints looks like, how is love for all the saints expressed in their lives, and how can we express our love for all the saints. In all truth, we have witnessed the lack of love for each other in local churches we have been a part of over the years. We have witnessed unforgiveness, jealousy, envy, judgementalism, and even disdain toward other believers. However, we have also witnessed love as well, but it is not a universal love for everyone in the local community of faith. But if that is going to happen it must start with us. We would have to go back to that letter Paul wrote to the Corinthians when he gave that great definition of what love is in order to examine our hearts to see if we do love all the saints. Let us always be aware of our love for Jesus and make every effort to love our neighbor, which in this case is other believers. 

Sealed People of God

  

DEVOTION

THE LETTER TO THE EPHESIANS

SEALED PEOPLE OF GOD

Eph 1:11-14

11 In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, 12 in order that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory. 13 And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession — to the praise of his glory.

NIV

Having sunk our teeth into God working out everything in our lives in conformity with the purpose of His will, so that we who put our trust in Jesus might be for the praise of God’s glory, we now turn our attention to being sealed. Once we accepted Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, we were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit. This gives us the evidence to know that the Holy Spirit comes upon us or within us the moment we believed in the word of truth, which is the gospel, or could be said that Jesus is the word of truth. Nevertheless, the moment we believed we were marked in him with a seal. This would appear to prove there is no second experience of being baptized in the Spirit. Yet, there were believers in that time who had yet heard of the baptism in the Spirit and when Paul or someone laid hands on them, they received the Spirit and at least several times it is recorded they spoke in another tongue. So then, it does make us ponder on whether being sealed with the promised Holy Spirit is the same thing, or different, than being baptized in the Spirit. We know that Jesus promised his disciples that when he left to go back to heaven, that He would send the Spirit, and that they should wait for Him to come upon them. They had already believed by had not yet had the Spirit come upon them or had been baptized by Him. So, this seal must be something else, as it happened the moment we were saved. God is marking us with His Spirit meaning that we now have His seal upon us, declaring that we belong to Him. This seal denotes ownership, rather than the guidance the Spirit does as he leads us into all truth. The Spirit does all that and more, manifesting His gifts in us, and developing or producing His fruit in our lives. But this seal does not appear to be all that, but simply a way to show we belong to God, although as the Spirit does all that within us, it would also seem that is the evidence of being sealed. It shows us that we have indeed been sealed. This then also gives us proof of our inheritance and at the same time was proof to those at the time of this letter, because we are those who are God’s possession because he has redeemed us. This mark that we carry also gives us the confidence that we will receive our inheritance someday. Let us live out our days, living as the sealed people of God. 

Conforming to His Will

                                                   DEVOTION

THE LETTER TO THE EPHESIANS

CONFORMING TO HIS WILL

Eph 1:11-14

11 In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, 12 in order that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory. 13 And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession — to the praise of his glory.

NIV

First, before we look at what we are included in, we must know that it was not us that were also chosen, but it was Paul who was also chosen along with the twelve apostles, that Jesus personally called them to follow him. It is clear that Paul was one of the chosen who God determined according to His plan that He works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will. Now, this is something that we can sink our teeth into which was meant as regarding God choosing Paul, but when we talk about the will of God, that has to also apply to us. Of course, we want to consider being sealed, but before we get to that we must ponder on God working out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will. We also want to consider that to hope in Christ might be for the praise of his glory. Nevertheless, when we think about the will of God, and that He works out everything in conformity to the purpose of his will, we have to know that includes our lives. It is God who started this good work in us and it is God who is going to bring it to completion. Because we accepted Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, or in other words, we accepted the provision for our redemption that God worked in conformity with the purpose of his will, we accepted God’s will for us, and thus it would seem right that we submit our will to His will. This means we are no longer the master of our lives, for God is. We know that we cannot serve two masters God or money, as we already consider money as a representation of self. When we serve ourselves usually, we are in pursuit of money in one form or another, as money is what is needed to live in this life. We need only to look at the world and see them chasing their dreams, their aspirations, goals, and it usually revolves around wanting more money to afford them their material desires. Of course, we too need money to buy the things of life, and how do we work that out with the conformity of His will? Does our existence in this life matter to the will of God?  Are we to look to ourselves to provide all our needs and wants and only submit to God in spiritual matters. Would that not be trying to serve two masters? God knows we need these things, and  we should see that His will takes us to where we should work, live, and even play, along with where we should worship as a church. Our whole lives should always be about seeing God working out everything in and for us, in conformity to the purpose of his will. We need only consult Him in every aspect of our lives to insure we are living in conformity to his will. 

Living in the Perfect Will of God

  

DEVOTION

THE LETTER TO THE EPHESIANS

LIVING IN THE PERFECT WILL OF GOD

Eph 1:3-10

3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. 4 For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love 5 he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. 7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace 8 that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding. 9 And he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, 10 to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment — to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ.

NIV

We should explore this idea about God’s will which was once a mystery but is now made known in accordance with His good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ. What could be seen as a bit confusing is that it was to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment. This makes us think that God’s will is still a mystery and we will not be made known of it until some time in the future, but that is not the case. We have to go to the letter that was written to the Colossians in order to make it clear of the meaning of this letter.

Col 1:25-27

25 I have become its servant by the commission God gave me to present to you the word of God in its fullness— 26 the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the saints. 27 To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

NIV

We now can see that the mystery was made known at the time of Christ and that all through the Old Testament this mystery about the Gentiles being able to be grafted into Israel, so to speak, or adopted as sons of God was hidden, but is now made known. It is no longer a mystery that God’s will is to include the Gentiles to be in Christ and have Christ be in them, which is us. We are in the fulfillment of times, in that Christ came for all of His people, whom he made in their image. Although it is true that the people of Israel are His chosen people, the ones He came to, born of a virgin girl who was in Israel, who, in fact, was in the line of David, as was Joseph who married her and became known as an earthy father of Jesus, raising him in his trade of carpentry, although having no genetic connection to Jesus, as Jesus was the Son of God, or we could say God who came in the likeness of man. Nevertheless, this  is the will of God that was made known to his creation, that Christ came for all men, both the Jew and the Gentile. It is also interesting that God did not need to consult anyone or need any foreign aid or counsel for His purposes originated in his own mind and were concealed until he chose to make them known, which He has done in Christ Jesus. Therefore, because we believe in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, we can say that we are living within the perfect will of God.

 

Redeemed

 DEVOTION

THE LETTER TO THE EPHESIANS

REDEEMED

Eph 1:3-10

3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. 4 For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love 5 he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. 7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace 8 that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding. 9 And he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, 10 to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment — to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ.

NIV

We still need to explore every spiritual blessing in Christ. Of course, Christ is the spiritual blessing and because we are in Christ and He is in us, we have every spiritual blessing which means there are no other spiritual blessing then Christ. However, this passage does give us some aspects of this spiritual blessing. One of those aspects is his glories grace which he freely gave us in the one he loves, which is Jesus. It seems that when we think about Jesus, we are reminded of how he suffered on the cross. In some of the churches we have been in Good Friday is presented as the darkness day because of the death of Jesus. But this is the grace of God who freely gives us. No one took the life of Jesus, but he gave his life freely out of his love for us, so that we could be redeemed and with his blood, we have the forgiveness of our sins. Man did nothing but the will of God concerning Jesus on the cross. Everything that happened that day was in accordance with his glorious grace. He was not coerced to go to the cross, he went to the grace freely according to the will of the Father, which would have been the will Of Jesus since he is God. Therefore, in him we have been redeemed because Jesus paid the price for our sins, so that we do not need to pay the price of death, for the wages of sin is death. Our debt has been paid; God freely paid our debt. How can we not praise his name forever? How can we ever be so sedate about our redemption? How can we be so ho-hum in our praise? We should be rejoicing in praise, both verbally and physically. How can we just stand or sit still in our worship? Our debt has been paid, what a relief that is. We do not and cannot do anything that affects our redemption other than faith in Jesus, because it is only by his blood that the price for our sins can be paid. So let us live with joy. Let us live praising our Lord! Let us live full of worship, openly displaying our love for him. This is not about doing good deeds, although that can be a result of our love for him, as long as we do not do good deeds for the praise of men. Let us live with rejoicing both in our heart and in our body, living as an image bearer of Christ. Let us joyfully praise him for we have been redeemed.